Saturday, August 11, 2007


CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Aug. 11, 2007 (PR Newswire delivered by Newstex) -- On Thursday, August 9th, the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) announced that 36 teams are advancing as semifinalists to the DARPA Urban Challenge. The challenge offers a $2M prize to the team fielding a driverless robotic vehicle to self-navigate 60 miles of city traffic. Charlottesville, Virginia-based Team Jefferson ( http://teamjefferson.com/) was one of the 36 teams selected to advance. The team, consisting of members from Perrone Robotics, Inc. (PRI), a Virginia- based robotics software company, and the University of Virginia Engineering School, is readying its vehicle, 'Tommy Junior', for the event which will take place at an air force base in Victorville, California beginning October 26th. Roughly 20 finalists will compete in the final 60-mile mock city-traffic challenge on November 3rd.

The team's secret weapons include scientists and engineers from PRI and UVa, and PRI's patent pending 'MAX' robotics software platform which runs on Sun Microsystems' Java. MAX represents the DNA and core robotics operating system that enables the rapid drop-in of commercially available and affordable hardware, enabling any vehicle to be made fully autonomous within 24 hours of MAX configuration. Tommy Junior's cost has been less than $50,000 in hardware which includes its stock Scion xB automotive platform, and a few man-years of software development.

'Driverless robotic cars shouldn't cost ten million or even one million dollars,' says team lead Paul Perrone. While competing teams are spending 10 to 100 times the amount that Team Jefferson is spending, the team's robot, Tommy Junior, is keeping pace with those other teams. Perrone further explains, 'Over 100 people die on our roads and highways every day due to distractions and inattention while driving. The autonomous vehicle doesn't have to worry about changing the radio station or talking on the phone. If we can keep the development costs low, then we know we're proving the commercial applicability of the technology. Faster, cheaper, better: that's our mantra.'

About Perrone Robotics

Perrone Robotics, Inc. provides software for robotics. To find out more, go to ( http://perronerobotics.com/).

Perrone Robotics and MAX are trademarks of Perrone Robotics, Inc. MAX is patent pending by Perrone Robotics, Inc. Other product and company names herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Perrone Robotics, Inc.

Paul J. Perrone, 434-823-2833

 contact@perronerobotics.com

SOURCE Perrone Robotics, Inc.



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